WE HERE AT DailyEdge.ie spend most of our time reading, watching TV, movies, or listening to music. Sure what else would we do, write?
Here are our favourites from the year that was:
What was the best TV show you watched this year?
Fionnuala Jones
Love Island (obviously) for helping me realise that not all reality TV is bad and also that love is real. Honourable mention also to the Handmaid’s Tale, on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Valerie Loftus
There was so much good telly this year that I honestly can’t pick just one. I was addicted to Big Little Lies, devoured the second season of Stranger Things (STEVE!), and completely fell in love with The Good Place on Netflix. They are all A+ shows and I recommend them to everyone.
Kelly Earley
Dear White People was easily my favourite show this year. It had racists tweeting #boycottnetflix, so what more could you want really? It looked at racism and class in a hilarious way, but when it was serious, it was really serious. People Just Do Nothing is another. It’s a BBC comedy from 2014 that I had never heard of until it got added to Netflix this year. It’s a mockumentary in the style of The Office, but examining the lives of a group of extremely deluded MCs running a pirate radio station in west London. It’s genuinely laugh out loud funny and the music is decent.
David
Big Mouth is of the only shows that made me legitimately laugh out loud in 2017. So much of it is deliberately, excessively vulgar but behind the gags it’s a really well-observed take on all the characters’ struggles with puberty. If you don’t like the first couple of episodes though, there’s no point in continuing
Mindhunter, a psychological rollercoaster of a show. I completely binged on it and that’s definitely not advisable. It examines FBI agents’ techniques on how they interviewed and profiled the most notorious serial killers back in the ’70s – and the worst thing about it is they’re all completely real so you end up going deep on their stories after. If you liked David Fincher’s Zodiac, Mindhunter is a must. Jonathan Groff’s performance is… disturbingly good.
Finally, Black Mirror Season 3. I know this technically doesn’t count because it dropped near the end of 2016, but I kept repeat-watching and some of the episodes stay with you for the whole year. San Junipero was the obvious highlight, but pretty much every episode was disquieting on some level – and Hated in the Nation is a brilliant feature-length finale.
Nicola Byrne
The winner this year for me has to be Big Little Lies (I must have binged it all in two days), with an honourable mention to Orange Is The New Black‘s fifth season. It’s just not getting worse. On Irish telly, I thought Striking Out was a great drama, even above RTÉ standards.
How about movies?
Fionnuala Jones
Baby Driver. The way they did the music in this was what got me. I’m not usually into car-chase-y, thriller stuff either but this felt so unique in its approach.
Valerie Loftus
I am not a film snob (as you might have guessed from some of my writing). I enjoyed Thor: Ragnarok IMMENSELY and I’ll probably go and see it again before it leaves the cinema. Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth are both precious gifts.
Kelly Earley
A Date For Mad Mary came out last year, but it’s such a lovely film and makes for a very nice (albeit emotional) hangover watch. It’s about a young Irish woman who has just been released from prison with a very short period of time to find a date for her best friend’s wedding. She goes through several men, none of which are suitable. Frustrating, but uplifting. Also features a storyline about two girls who go out with each other where one doesn’t die in the end, which is rare.
Then there’s Get Out. A young black man finally gets to meet his white girlfriend’s parents, who she insists are not racist, only to find out that they are really, really weird.
David
No Stone Unturned: I’m bet into Northern Ireland documentaries, so for an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker to tackle a major tragedy from the Troubles – and shed new evidence on the case – was fascinating to see. Just a really well put together documentary that probably won’t get that much attention internationally.
I went into Spider-Man: Homecoming with low enough expectations but it was… actually good? I don’t know when they’re going to stop rebooting the character, but Tom Holland actually played a convincing enough secondary school Peter Parker – as opposed to a 30-year-old Tobey Maguire rocking around in his sequels.
Nicola Byrne
I loved Wonder Woman. There, I said it. How refreshing it was, to see a female superhero on screen in a movie that doesn’t absolutely suck or was purely made for men. Kudos, Patty Jenkins, I felt about ten again. The Big Sick was another one of those movies that just makes you feel all cosy inside, while The Disaster Artist was a fascinating watch and ironically a great movie about the worst movie ever.
Finally, the best music
Fionnuala Jones
SZA – Ctrl album. So so so unreal, she’ll definitely be back over here for a headline slot or maybe a festival gig. Such a strong debut album with themes that will deeply resonate with young women everywhere.
Valerie Loftus
The only new album I’ve listened to with any regularity in 2017 is Masseduction by St Vincent. Bop of the Year has to be New Rules by Dua Lipa, Song That I Can’t Listen To In Public Cos I’ll Cry goes to Kesha‘s Praying.
Kelly Earley
1992 Deluxe by Princess Nokia. This is a re-release of the Afro-Puerto Rican New Yorker’s first EP with a couple of new songs added. Princess Nokia is a gem. She threw a man off a subway car for using racist slurs, she has kicked audience members out of her concerts for being sexually aggressive toward female fans and has put on two excellent shows in Dublin over the last year or so. She writes songs about everything, from proudly owning her small boobs and fat belly (Tomboy) to some important social commentary (Mine).
Lust For Life by Lana Del Rey - Lana Del Rey is back and thankfully she sounds nothing like she did in Honeymoon. As an extremely diehard Lana Del Rey fan, I was so pleased with this album because unlike Honeymoon, her voice was actually loud enough to hear on the bus if you were listening on earphones.
Rats by Pillow Queens isn’t an album, but a true banger by a band from Dublin.
David
DJ Khaled, I’m The One. Any other year and this would be the standout summer banger that dominated all before it. Thanks to Despacito that wasn’t the case – but that’s #NotMySummerBanger and I’m The One is. Also worth a mention here is Wild Thoughts with Rihanna. Good man Khaled.
Kendrick Lamar – HUMBLE. I think I went a whole month listening to this non-stop earlier in the year. I can’t listen to it any more because I’ve ruined it with overplaying, but I’ve come to accept this face and I regret nothing. Other deadly songs I ruined for myself: Camila Cabello – Havana, Dua Lipa – New Rules
Calvin Harris and Frank Ocean – Slide. Hook of the Year. The only thing catchier than Slide was the questionable Galway Girl, so I’m just going to leave this in your head: “SHE PLAYED A FIDDLE IN AN IRISH BAND.”
Nicola Byrne
Taylor Swift‘s Reputation. I’m not really doing myself any favours in these recs, am I? While I wasn’t a massive fan of the first two singles, listening to it as a whole, it’s actually a pretty ethereal pop album. Maybe you just have to experience what it’s like to be a teenage girl to fully appreciate the likes of Delicate and So It Goes without wanting to go and write in a diary. Other than that, I’ve been listening a lot of Dua Lipa‘s debut, and closer to home, trio Wyvern Lingo have had a hell of a promising year. I Love You, Sadie is a banger. I have a feeling their album will be on my 2018 list.
What were your favourites of the year? Let us know in the comments
